Senior Irrigation Specialist

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org. Planet VPU: The WBG Planet Vice Presidency leads efforts to ensure a livable planet, vital for job creation and poverty reduction. It connects public and private solutions to operational teams and clients for scalable impact, offering guidance on job creation in agribusiness, tourism, infrastructure, and health. The VPU supports foundational infrastructure, policy, human capital, and private sector mobilization, while advancing initiatives like AgriConnect and Water Forward. Its goals include replicating effective solutions, fostering innovation, and providing timely knowledge to client teams. Water Department: Water for People, Food, and Planet. The Planet’s Water team works with regions to implement the WBG’s Water Strategy Implementation Plan to improve water security for 400 million people by 2030 through scalable solutions geared toward key client segments, namely, national and sub-national governments, private sector operators, investors, and financial institutions. It aims to do so through (i) country-led Water Compacts for efficient deployment of WBG resources to countries committed to policy and regulatory actions; (ii) coordinated public and private sector interventions to mobilize capital investments, and (iii) multiphase programmatic approaches to replicate and scale what works. In addition, the WBG will expand collaboration with other public and private sector partners, including MDBs and philanthropies, to form a “Water Forward” to fast-track global water security and reach many more people in developing countries. Given the scale of the challenge, such knowledge and financing partnerships that leverage each other are urgently needed to create impact at scale. The Department is comprised of 65 staff. Duties and Responsibility: Water for Food is one of the three key pillars of the WBG Water Strategy Implementation Plan and is structured around 2 scalable solutions; Farmer Led Irrigation Development and Improving efficiency of centralized irrigation schemes. The selected candidate will work with the Water for Food Global Lead to curate and facilitate the exchange of knowledge across the WBG, facilitating innovation, translating global knowledge into operational practice and supporting regional teams with delivery of Water for Food operations and investment. The selected candidate will:

• Support the design, development, and piloting of irrigation finance options for privately led irrigation (Farmer Led Irrigation Development, FLID), as well as optimizing centralized irrigation, in IBRD and IFC investments support of Water Forward and AgriConnect, including results-based financing facilities and digital platforms. In the Africa region, the coordination will also be with M300.
• Guide development of blended finance models—such as first-loss guarantees, and technical assistance facilities—to catalyze private investment and address affordability for smallholders.
• Provide expertise in FLID approaches, including asset ownership and Irrigation-as-a-Service models, farmer segmentation, and market analysis; promote integration of agronomy, and market knowledge into advisory and digital platforms.
• Support the design of incentive structures, eligibility criteria, and capacity-building programs to enable smallholder adoption of certified irrigation equipment and practices, including equipment and service supplier accreditation, after-sales service standards, and performance monitoring.
• Lead development and implementation of irrigation-related results-based financing mechanisms, including monitoring, reporting, and verification frameworks, e-payment systems, and transparent disbursement procedures.
• Work across the World Bank Group to advise on structuring blended finance instruments, guarantee facilities, and repurposing subsidies; support financial service providers in adapting loan products for irrigation investments, leveraging alternative data sources and digital innovations to improve credit assessment and risk management.
• Oversee integration of digital tools for farmer targeting, advisory services (agriculture, water, and market), monitoring, and risk mitigation, ensuring technical soundness, operational efficiency, and robust data governance (including privacy, security, and interoperability).
• Support institutional capacity building for government counterparts to manage results-based financing and farmer-led irrigation development programs, including technical, financial, and digital competencies; facilitate institutional integration of result-based financing mechanisms with national platforms to ensure sustainability and country ownership.
• Support policy dialogue, regulatory reform, and stakeholder engagement to strengthen enabling environments for irrigation finance and service delivery, coordinating with agriculture, water, energy, and digital authorities, private-sector actors, aggregators, and banks.